The number of scuba enthusiasts descending on premier shark-diving diving destinations like Aliwal Shoal, is fast on the rise.  Heather Dugmore braved the waves to have a look.

An offshore reef, south of Durban, Aliwal Shoal is renowned for its ragged tooth sharks or “raggies” as they’re affectionately called.

Divers come from all over the world to swim with these three-metre sharks that congregate on the reef from July to November, presumably to mate.

On a busy weekend at Aliwal, there can be 40 sea crafts with about eight divers apiece, launching from the shore at Umkomaas (the closest village) and heading for the reef, four-and-a-half kilometres out to sea.

This dive frenzy needs to be closely monitored if the raggies are not to be disturbed. Which is why the Nedbank-funded Green Trust is sponsoring scientists Mieke van Tienhoven and Vic Peddemors to assess the impact of divers on the raggies, as well as on the general coastal environment and the Umkomaas community.

The Aliwal scuba industry – most of which is based in Umkomaas - generates several million rands a year. Dive schools, guest houses and restaurants have sprung up in the last few years, solely to accommodate divers.

This kind of growth accelerates the need to manage the industry. Accordingly, one of the key goals of The Green Trust’s raggie project is to recommend an environmental management plan that will protect the raggies.

The project was originated by Peddemors, professor of the School of Biology at the University of Durban Westville.

Formerly chief scientist at the Natal Sharks Board, he became fascinated with raggies during his time there and started offering raggie diving courses, combined with lectures on sharks. All too aware of how little is known about raggies worldwide, several years back he initiated the photo identification research, now conducted by Van Tienhoven.

“We’re into the third year of the project now and we’re still going through the hard slog of photographing and identifying the raggies at Aliwal, but the long-term data is starting to emerge,” said Van Tienhoven.

Both she and Peddemors attended The Green Trust’s “Day of the Raggies” – a raggie dive organised for Nedbank clients in August this year.

Since not everyone is a scuba diver, Nedbank had arranged for a live video of the dive - filmed by underwater cameraman Mark Addison - to be streamed to the lounge of the Blue Marlin Hotel in Scottburgh, a stone’s throw from Umkomaas.

About forty Nedbank clients – three-quarters of whom were divers – were welcomed to the event by Maseda Ratshikuni, promotions manager for Nedbank’s three affinities - Arts, Green and Sport.

Looking after her Durban clients was Kloof and Hillcrest, manager, Cheryl Breytenbach, who is actively involved in conservation in her area. “As a branch we like to promote environmental awareness because most of my clients are keen conservationists,” she said.

Amongst the Durban clients were Charles and Caron Mitchell who are actively involved in the conservation of the Krantzkloof Nature Reserve.

Also from Durban were Ed and Joy Booth who dive several times a week. “I started diving at age 50 after a young man in our church said ‘If you saw what’s down there, you’d know there’s a God’,” said Joy.

“We have now been diving for thirteen years and we’ve dived all over the world. In our experience Aliwal Shoal is undoubtedly one of the best dive sites,” added Ed.

To everyone’s disappointment, the dive that day had to be postponed as the sea was too rough. To make up for it, Van Tienhoven and Peddemors, gave clients a stimulating talk about their raggie research.

Apart from photo-identifying hundreds of raggies, 26 raggies are being tagged with acoustic tags or “pingers” to monitor their movements via receivers attached to the reef wall. The information from the receivers is downloaded every fortnight.

“It’s vital data because since this reef is presumed to be a key mating area for the raggies, we need to understand their habits and movements in order to recommend a management plan,” explained Van Tienhoven. “Raggies give birth to only two pups every two years, which means without proper management the population can easily crash.”

The Australian raggie population crashed about thirty years back, not because of divers but because the raggies were misperceived as man-eaters and aggressively hunted. Raggies are now critically endangered in Australia and severe fines (from 20 000 Australian dollars) can be imposed on anyone who kills one.

No rules or fines are applicable in South Africa but fortunately our raggie population appears to be in a reasonably healthy state.

“Most divers at Aliwal are also fairly responsible and self-regulate their behaviour around raggies, including keeping a distance of three to four metres from the sharks so as not to disturb them,” added Van Tienhoven. “We encourage self-regulation but we do also need formalised, sensitive diving codes and, if the dive industry continues to grow, we might need to limit the number of divers at raggie sites.”